“...the only music which might be put into the mouth of God without blasphemy.”
- George Bernard Shaw — on The Magic Flute

This spectacular modern reworking of Mozart’s breakthrough 18th century opera tells the story of a young classical singer, Tom Henderson, who is cast— against his better judgment— as the lead in a 2006 staging of The Magic Flute in Salzburg.

Mozart started his career as a composer at the age of four, when he began composing piano pieces. At the age of five he was composing minuets and by age nine he had composed his first symphony. He wrote 20 complete operas, his final and most spectacular being The Magic Flute, which he wrote in the last year of his life at age 35. Mozart was a combination of the revolutionary compositional brilliance of modern day composers such as John Lennon and Paul McCartney with the groundbreaking performance individuality of an Elvis Presley—all rolled into one. He was the ultimate iconic pop-star of the 18th century who traveled across Europe on tour, each one more outstanding than the next. Fortunately for a modern audience his genius has never faded. In celebration of his 250th birthday I wanted to capture some of his most joyous work on film, and decided that a contemporary movie version of The Magic Flute might be workable if told as the backdrop to a modern love story, conveyed on a fantastical scale.

The Magic Flute is an unparalleled masterpiece of music, and this film might be considered an epic in terms of the scope of production. Not only does the film weave between time periods, reality and the imagination, it is also Kevin Sullivan’s first significant movie to incorporate computer generated imagery with live action.

One often misunderstood aspect of Freemasonry is that historically it has been an initiatory order. To this day, Freemasons must go through certain rites of initiation before they are considered full members of the order. It is this voyage of self discovery that leads to the ultimate goal… enlightenment.

Kevin Sullivan explains the workings of Mozart’s Magic Flute Diaries’ contemporary love story, set amidst the classical setting of the famous opera.  Find out all the interesting aspects of the world Kevin has created in this behind-the-scenes video, which is narrated by the director and features input from the cast, including Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner, Batman Begins) and Warren Christie (October Road).

In keeping with Kevin Sullivan’s vision of transporting the world of opera to the big screen with his film Mozart’s Magic Flute Diaries, it seems the Metropolitan Opera has also made great lengths in promoting the visual world of opera, according to Variety.

As the end of the year approaches, we thought we’d take a look back at the most popular blogs on our Mozart site this year. Here is a countdown of the articles that readers found most intriguing!